Eleven years ago, in its very first issue, Adventist Today covered the story of David Koresh's dramatic 51-day standoff with Federal agents at Mt. Carmel, near Waco, Texas. The siege that had gripped TV audiences for weeks ended with a Rambo-style raid including the exchange of gunfire and spectacular flames and resulting in the death of Koresh and 73 of his followers. His Branch Davidian 'compound' was turned to ashes on that day, June 19, 1993. Fortunately, nearly 60 had left the compound before the fire. The Federal agents had acted on a belief that Koresh held unregistered firearms and was molesting children by marrying them. The details of the event are still fuzzy; witnesses in later trials could not agree on just what happened. Robert McCurry wrote later that "part of America's heart and soul died" in the tragic event.

What has happened to the remaining Branch Davidians since Koresh died? An enterprising reporter from the Texas Monthly magazine, Michael Hall, paid a visit to Mount Carmel in the spring of 2003 to find out who might still be there. Near the gate of the property he found a small new chapel tended by Clive Doyle, 62, a preacher who lives in a small double-wide mobile home next to the church. Doyle had survived the fire, though his hands were badly burned. He serves a congregation of four other Davidian survivors; he estimates that there are only a dozen or so Davidians left in Texas, and "maybe a hundred in the world". He holds his services, or 'studies', on Saturdays, sitting in a chair and discussing Bible themes with members and visitors. He still believes in Koresh's teachings, especially those related to the seven seals of Revelation, for which he thought Koresh had the essential key. And he and his flock look for David Koresh's resurrection and return.

Elsewhere on the 77 windswept, desolate acres of the Branch Davidian property, in a renovated barn at the opposite end, Hall found another Davidian congregation. There were six people who disavowed Koresh as a prophet and followed instead the teachings of Ben and Lois Roden, themselves also self-proclaimed prophets, now deceased. The Rodens had preceded Koresh on the property, but he had displaced them. Charlie Pace, the current leader of this group, with his wife and three children and three grown women still claim the rightful title to the property. Others as well have disputed Doyle's claim, but after a lengthy trial the court has decided simply that the property belongs to the church. So now these small groups, all Sabbath keepers, remain and try to focus on the future calamities they all are sure will come.

Early on in the first wave of publicity in 1993 the Seventh-day Adventist Church took pains to distance itself from the Davidian heresy, for these 'prophets' and most of their followers had earlier in their lives been Adventists. Hall's only reference to the church as a journalist was to say, "Adventists, who follow certain Jewish traditions and rituals (such as a Saturday Sabbath), predict Christ's imminent return to cleanse a wicked world". He didn't have it exactly right, but the question still lingers in the minds of many church members today: could such a thing happen again? There is a tradition of 'proof-texting' in our past, the tendency some have to scout the Scriptures for passages that seem to support their pet theories. Perhaps now, as we grieve for the many who were once part of our community but died in the tragedy, we can take note of the sad ending that can come from misplaced religious fervor.